Wednesday, January 11, 2012

They could make some changes though, and as Opening Day inches closer, I have my own wishlist for the new house.

1. Mystique and Aura in the Stands
Once upon a time at the old park, it used to be possible to roam the stadium before the game with, by and large, free reign of the place. At a certain time, ushers would gently ask fans to head to their seats, but autograph hounds could stake out batting practice. At the new park, the general atmosphere in the lower seating bowls is one somewhere between antipathy and hostility. Guards will promptly sweep out people who aren’t where they should be a good 90 minutes before first pitch, and forget about ever crossing the moat that separates most fans from the field.

The Yankees needn’t compromise on their high-ticket packages to make the place a bit more welcoming for those who just want a close-up of the field. Calling off the hounds earlier on and making the fans more welcome would go a long way toward instilling the stadium with its own set of mystique and aura. We’re fans. We want to be there, and we’re not out to cause trouble.

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I find myself more and more irritated by the phrase "free reign" as I get older. Not even so much because it seems like a mistake for "free rein," which is very evocative and precise, but because of its inherent imprecision. "Reign" would seem to be inevitably free, unless you're distinguishing constitutional from absolute monarchies, which is hardly what most users of the phrase are thinking. Also, why use "free reign" as a synomym for "free run"? Even if you are allowed to wander around a stadium, you don't rule the place.

More to the point, I went to Yankee Stadium for a game last year and TBH it wasn't that great of a baseball experience. Their team Hall of Fame was pretty neat and there were some cool vendors there too (I bought a mid-80s team program at a highly decent price, for instance) but overall I think I'd much rather go to see a Mariners game in the left-field bleachers at Safeco than the same in Yankee Stadium (to make matters worse I saw the Yanks play the Blue Jays, so it was a matchup between a team I don't care about and one I don't like; still, baseball is baseball and if the experience was less bland I'd have still enjoyed it, I think). I did get there too late to get into Monument Park, which sucked, but I can understand not wanting fans to accidentally get hit by baseballs during BP.